The 6th A.H. Teen Film Fest is in the books! So many great films (27 total submitted!) and a great showing of 22 of the films at the screening at the Metropolis Theatre (thanks again, Metropolis!). Check out three of our winners for Best Cinematography, Best Music Video and Best Acting in a Film below! The Best Overall film, Best Horror Film and Best Use of an Arlington Heights Landmark winners can be found by 'Like'-ing us on Facebook. Be sure and watch those films there!

and the best OVERALL FILM was awarded to Riley Langefeld for his masterpiece 'Symphony'!!!

Congratulations to all! Here is a link to all the films submitted and don't forget ...the library's OPEN HOUSE event tomorrow, Sunday the 18th, from 1-3 pm, will have all of the films played in the HUB on a flat screen!

Last Friday was our first "Appy Hour." What's that you ask? We got together to talk about cool (free!) apps for your phone, ipad, or tablet. Because we're civilized folks, we enjoyed "mocktails" and chocolate biscuits while we passed around ipads loaded with some interesting, fun and useful apps! Here are some of the apps we talked about:

Books and Magazines

Overdrive: Download ebooks and audiobooks from the library

Zinio: Download magazines from the library

YALSA Teen Book Finder: Recommendations of award-winning and otherwise recognized good books

Productivity & School

Evernote: Save notes, images, web clips, and audio notes all in one place

In honor of Banned Books Week, we are celebrating our intellectual freedom by having TWO social media contests during the month of September.

FIRST CONTEST!

Tweet us @Hub500 a review of a banned or challenged book and Tag it #Hub500BBW. You can read a brand new banned or challenged book, or one you've read before. (I promise you've read at least one before; here are severalfrighteninglylonglists...and they are nowhere near complete!).

SECOND CONTEST!

Post a photo to Instagram promoting intellectual liberty and the freedom to read. Make sure to mention us (@hub500) and tag it #Hub500BBW.

What is Book Speed Dating you ask? Well, let me explain! 14 books were completely covered and taped shut, and a photocopy of the first chapter was stapled to the front. After reading each one, teens rated the book on their score sheets that looked like this:

At the end, everyone chose their highest rated books and got to unwrap them! First, though, we needed sustenance (in the form of pizza and cookies):

Their "dates" waited patiently on the table!

Speed-dating books is serious business:

But the reveal is very exciting!

And, of course, we had a lot of fun discussing The Fifth Wave. Most everyone in attendance was pretty passionate about the book, and we are all anxiously awaiting the next book in the series. To kick off our discussion, we watched the trailer for the book:

Bookapalooza was so much fun, we had requests to do it again! I think that can be arranged. Stay tuned!

Inklings is the HUB's creative writing club, where once a month, teens get together and explore some facet of writing and storytelling. (We meet the first Tuesday of every month, from 4-6. You should join us!)

At our March meeting, we talked about Choose Your Own Adventure stories, where the reader can choose different paths for the story to take. It's almost like playing a video game, in that your character will inevitably die over and over and over and over... There was a series of incredibly popular Choose Your Own Adventure books in the 1980s and 90s, with hilaroiusly cheesy and dated covers. Just recently, one popped up online to see if you could survive The Battle of Hogwarts!

Inklings decided to write their own Choose Your Own Adventure stories, and you can all read/play along! We used a free online software called Twine. (You can write your own stories there, too!) For each story, Inklingers paired up and chose an opening passage, setting up a scenario and a few choices. (One is a pirate adventure, the other a murder mystery.) Teams would then venture off of one of those choices, creating their own crazy branches for the story to go into. Most end in hilarious death, but a few lead your character to victory! Try them both out, and see how well you can survive!

Colin and Robert, two AHML Film Fest entrants were on the ABC 7 News this morning! Did you see it? Never fear, you can watch the segment right here:

It was really fun to visit the ABC 7 studios in downtown Chicago. I watched Weather Woman Tracy Butler get her make-up on for the morning news. We hung out in the Green Room, where everyone signs the walls that they've been there and been on the news. I chatted briefly with Judy Hsu and Hosea Sanders, who are both really nice!

We decided to take some pics while we hung out in the Green Room, waiting, waiting. No biggie!

I wanted to capture what it was like behind the scenes so I took this quick pan of the studio. Not the greatest footage in the world, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what it's like to be there while they are filming the news!

Make sure to attend the Teen Film Festival at the library THIS FRIDAY NIGHT! @ 7PM. All ages welcome. Also, don't miss the awesome After-Party we're having in The Hub (just for Teens). Free Yogurtland, games, and photobooth will be in full effect!